Currently, there is a drive toward designing more fuel-efficient vehicles, due to the increasing price of petroleum-based fuels and environmental concerns. However, vehicles must maintain good traction and stability. In addition to these requirements, vehicles having four-wheel drive systems must be compatible with brake based vehicle dynamic control (VDC) systems in the vehicle. These design parameters have appeared to be competing, and there has been a trade-off between maintaining compatibility with VDC systems and maintaining traction and stability through the use of a powertrain torque biasing system, while also attempting to increase fuel efficiency through the use of an efficient and effective biasing system. Lightweight compact four-wheel drive torque biasing systems have been designed as passive friction based biasing systems in some differentials having front outputs. The passive nature of these systems has made them less compatible with VDC systems while maintaining a beneficial level of torque biasing.